Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Underrated/Hidden Gem Books I've Read In The Past Year Or So

Posted by
Laura at Library of Clean Reads
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January 17, 2017
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Top Ten Tuesday
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Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme is great for those who love lists. 10 is just a suggestion to aim for if you can hit it. You can do a list of 3 or 5 or 20, whatever you decide. And you canput a spin on the topic if you need to. Each week there is a new list to create. This week the list is:

Top Ten Underrated/Hidden Gem Books I've Read In The Past Year Or So

I love discovering hidden gems. Because I organize virtual blog tours, I have found a few wonderful hidden gems that I would otherwise never have read. Here are some that I've discovered. You will note that some have book covers that do not do the book justice.

I simply loved this novel with its strong yet vulnerable heroine and its subject of women’s rights. L. Davis Munro captured the exciting but dangerous struggle women endured to be heard and respected in the early 1900. With believable characters, a good plot and a stirring time in history, this novel was a thrilling and thought-provoking read.

A story set in medieval Italy, a strong female protagonist, midwifery, science, romance, adventure, the Black Death, betrayal, intrigue...these are just some of the elements that made me love reading Alchemy's Daughter. Santina is a great character, well-developed, strong and yet vulnerable, living in a time when science was little understood and women could be considered witches and burned just for practicing advanced medicine little understood at the time.

Roma Underground is the first book in the Roma series, introducing us to a set of colorful characters both Italian and American, and takes place in Rome, both above and underground. I was thoroughly entertained as I read this intelligent and well-written thriller with its main character Alabaster Black a.k.a. Bianca Nerini, a kick-ass female forensic accountant who is hiding in Rome from the covert US organization she used to work for called Rendition.

If there is one memoir you plan to read this year, let it be this one. Sima Goel's journey from her happy childhood to a harrowing escape from the oppressive and extremist revolutionary government is an amazing story you will not soon forget.

Mama's Knight is a beautiful book. It provides a loving way to help a young child understand what is happening to a parent who is fighting cancer. Written by a mother (with a young child) who has suffered the loss of her own mother through cancer, this book fulfils a need for those families who are fighting cancer and want to empower their children during this difficult time.